Alexandria Gazette

MISCELLANEOUS

LIFE IN NEW YORK.--I had a very amusing

afternoon at Hoboken, though I could find

very little to describe that would be new to you.

I presume there were ten thousand persons at

least in the "Elysian Fields." The first object

of attraction on landing was an encampment of

Penobscot Indians, sitting as quietly in their

tents, basket making, as if there were no crowd

round them. A very pretty and very rosy

squaw of sixteen honored the grass with her

pressure in one of the tents, and a little dingy

Flippertigibbet, the first deformed Indian I ever

saw, sat at her feet for a foil. The aboriginal

beauty was dressed in a fashionable made calico

gown, presented to her probably by some visitor

or neighbor; but as she wore strictly au naturel,

allowing it "to rise and fall as nature (not cot-

ton) pleases:" she had, I must say, a most unfur-

nished air. "If women (says Rochefoucauld)

were by nature what they make themselves by art,

they would be inconsolable." But spite of this

truth, and spite of classic taste, which rejects all

unnatural exaggerations, I confess that the eye

must be gradually uneducated before it can ad-

mire the severe outline of unstuffed calico.

I think Hoboken is, without a doubt, the finest

public-pleasure ground in the world, and I never

saw it in greater beauty. The nobly wooded

park was enjoyable either in the sunshine or the

shade, so temperate was the air, and the grass

and leaves shone bright, newly washed with the

rain. In the neighborhood of the Pavilion, on

the open lawn, jugglers and rope-dancers were

performing in their spangled dresses; the great

proportion of the crowd scattered through the

sun-flecked fields and groves, as far as the eye

could see, were dressed in gay colors or in white;

the scores of boats on the river were dressed in

gay flags and covered with green boughs, and ev-

ery thing conspired to make it one of the most mag-

nificent scenes for a Utopian carnival. I was

quite enchanted with the whole spectacle, and,

but for my superfine companion who would not

permit me to ride round on the flying-horses, nor

swing in the great yellow gondola, nor eat oys-

ters at the crib,' nor speak to the Penobscot

squaw, I should have brought away a very com-

plete impression of all the joys of Hoboken. I

am rather surprised, by-the-way, that the patent-

leather class of our country do not frequent

these charming resorts. If it were only as a va-

riety after their velvet friends,' I should think

they would like an occasional Saturnalia, as, in-

deed, in all other countries, gentlemen do; but,

with the exception of the friend inveigled thither

by myself, I did not meet in the Elysian Fields a

single person of my ornamental acquaintance.-

Quite aside from fresh air and scenery, the pre-

sence of five or six thousand bonnets with new

faces in them gives an interest to a place, and,

on the whole, I think, the ornamentals have a

loss of it.

The great show in the city towards evening

was the full operation of the new fountain at the

Bowling Green, and the taste of the design

seems to promise the papers a fruitful subject for

discussion. A heap of rocks, fifteen or twenty

feet high and in the shape of a dice-box, stands

in the centre of a trim basin which is laid very

smoothly with brick and furnished with four tin

reflectors to show the fountain by gas-light.-

Several smart jets point their slender fingers at

the rude and exposed waist of this rocky mon-

ster, and I think they show their judgment; for

if it were of a more pyramidal shape the water,

instead of pouring sheer from the top, would

break into a white drapery for these uncovered

ribs. The main jet throws its crest to the height

of forty or fifty feet, but is defeated in its errand

(which is to fall over the rocky structure if

there is any wind stirring--and this seems an un-

foreseen defect. The original idea was poetical

and good, and Mr. Renwick probably had no

smooth bricks, nor gas-reflectors, nor naked

waist, nor julep-tube jets in his first drawing of

the fountain. A pyramid or cone of marble

steps of the same height, with the water tripping

down at its leisure, would have been, I think,

more in keeping with the size of the place, as

well as better supported by the accessories. The

effect, as it is, is exceedingly beautiful when seen

from a little distance, broken by the trees, and

the city ought to feel very much obliged to the

liberal persons by whom this embellishment is

erected.--N. Y. Corr. of Nat. Int.